Genesis 9:6

9:6 “Whoever sheds human blood, ¹ 

by other humans ² 

must his blood be shed;

for in God’s image ³ 

God ⁴  has made humankind.”

Exodus 21:12

Personal Injuries

21:12 ⁵ “Whoever strikes someone ⁶  so that he dies ⁷  must surely be put to death. ⁸ 

Numbers 35:33

35:33 “You must not pollute the land where you live, for blood defiles the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed there, except by the blood of the person who shed it.

Deuteronomy 21:1-9

Laws Concerning Unsolved Murder

21:1 If a homicide victim ⁹  should be found lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you, ¹⁰  and no one knows who killed ¹¹  him, 21:2 your elders and judges must go out and measure how far it is to the cities in the vicinity of the corpse. ¹²  21:3 Then the elders of the city nearest to the corpse ¹³  must take from the herd a heifer that has not been worked – that has never pulled with the yoke – 21:4 and bring the heifer down to a wadi with flowing water, ¹⁴  to a valley that is neither plowed nor sown. ¹⁵  There at the wadi they are to break the heifer’s neck. 21:5 Then the Levitical priests ¹⁶  will approach (for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name, ¹⁷  and to decide ¹⁸  every judicial verdict ¹⁹ ) 21:6 and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse ²⁰  must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. ²¹  21:7 Then they must proclaim, “Our hands have not spilled this blood, nor have we ²²  witnessed the crime. ²³  21:8 Do not blame ²⁴  your people Israel whom you redeemed, O Lord, and do not hold them accountable for the bloodshed of an innocent person.” ²⁵  Then atonement will be made for the bloodshed. 21:9 In this manner you will purge out the guilt of innocent blood from among you, for you must do what is right before ²⁶  the Lord.

Matthew 27:24

Jesus is Condemned and Mocked

27:24 When ²⁷  Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but that instead a riot was starting, he took some water, washed his hands before the crowd and said, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. You take care of it yourselves!” ²⁸ 

[9:6]  ¹ tn Heb “the blood of man.”

[9:6]  ² tn Heb “by man,” a generic term here for other human beings.

[9:6]  ³ sn See the notes on the words “humankind” and “likeness” in Gen 1:26, as well as J. Barr, “The Image of God in the Book of Genesis – A Study of Terminology,” BJRL 51 (1968/69): 11-26.

[9:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:12]  ⁵ sn The underlying point of this section remains vital today: The people of God must treat all human life as sacred.

[21:12]  ⁶ tn The construction uses a Hiphil participle in construct with the noun for “man” (or person as is understood in a law for the nation): “the one striking [of] a man.” This is a casus pendens (independent nominative absolute); it indicates the condition or action that involves further consequence (GKC 361 §116.w).

[21:12]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew word וָמֵת (vamet) is a Qal perfect with vav consecutive; it means “and he dies” and not “and killed him” (which require another stem). Gesenius notes that this form after a participle is the equivalent of a sentence representing a contingent action (GKC 333 §112.n). The word shows the result of the action in the opening participle. It is therefore a case of murder or manslaughter.

[21:12]  ⁸ sn See A. Phillips, “Another Look at Murder,” JJS 28 (1977): 105-26.

[21:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “slain [one].” The term חָלָל (khalal) suggests something other than a natural death (cf. Num 19:16; 23:24; Jer 51:52; Ezek 26:15; 30:24; 31:17-18).

[21:1]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text includes “to possess it,” but this has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “struck,” but in context a fatal blow is meant; cf. NLT “who committed the murder.”

[21:2]  ¹² tn Heb “surrounding the slain [one].”

[21:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “slain [one].”

[21:4]  ¹⁴ tn The combination “a wadi with flowing water” is necessary because a wadi (נַחַל, nakhal) was ordinarily a dry stream or riverbed. For this ritual, however, a perennial stream must be chosen so that there would be fresh, rushing water.

[21:4]  ¹⁵ sn The unworked heifer, fresh stream, and uncultivated valley speak of ritual purity – of freedom from human contamination.

[21:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the priests, the sons of Levi.”

[21:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in the name of the Lord.” See note on Deut 10:8. The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[21:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “by their mouth.”

[21:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “every controversy and every blow.”

[21:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “slain [one].”

[21:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “wadi,” a seasonal watercourse through a valley.

[21:7]  ²² tn Heb “our eyes.” This is a figure of speech known as synecdoche in which the part (the eyes) is put for the whole (the entire person).

[21:7]  ²³ tn Heb “seen”; the implied object (the crime committed) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Atone for.”

[21:8]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and do not place innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel.”

[21:9]  ²⁶ tn Heb “in the eyes of” (so ASV, NASB, NIV).

[27:24]  ²⁷ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[27:24]  ²⁸ sn You take care of it yourselves! Compare the response of the chief priests and elders to Judas in 27:4. The expression is identical except that in 27:4 it is singular and here it is plural.